When Growing up - Kenya Style
This note best addresses those born prior to 1986!!
We survived being born to mothers who took aspirin and didn't get tested for diabetes.
Then after that trauma, we were put to sleep on our tummies on a mattress on the floor not baby cribs covered with bright colored leso. To be put to sleep you were carried on the back tied with a leso and not put on rocking baby cribs or wheeled around on baby cycles till one got dizzy and opted to sleep. We had no childproof lids on medicine bottles, doors or cabinets. When we rode our bikes, we had no helmets, not to mention, the risks we took climbing walls, trees and posts.
As infants and children, we would ride in cars with no car seats, booster seats, seat belts or air bags. The matatus those days were the seven aside type (pick ups) so riding in the back of a pick up on a warm day was always a special treat.
We drank water from anywhere; from the river, lake, rainwater that collected in the ndoo; the garden hose, directly from the tap (whatever tap) - outside the shamba, in the toilet, on the street, in the kitchen sink and NOT from a bottle. We shared one soft drink with four friends, from one bottle; or shared a sweet (puru) with four friends- and NO ONE actually died from this.
We ate cupcakes, goody goody, ice cream, white bread (Elliot's) and blue band, but we weren't overweight because WE WERE ALWAYS OUTSIDE PLAYING! We would leave home in the morning and play all day, as long as we were back when the sun went down.
We would spend hours building our toys, mugaragari, out of scraps and tins of blue band, kimbo, and cowboy tins or out of omo boxes and empty jik bottles. I remember of a friend who desperately wanted a jik bottle to make a toy car that he went and emptied jik from a full bottle into his small brother's napkins that had been kept on a basin for washing. I guess you know what the consequences were.
Remember the ride down the hill, only to find out the bike has no brakes. And mind you this small bike is carrying 4 guys- After running into the bushes and sewage trenches a few times, we learned to solve the problem. We made up games- after watching Black Ninja, or Bud Spencer movie at our friend’s on a Black and white screen-Great Wall. It was only a few who owned a video tape player. At times it would get nasty trying out the antis of Britsh Bulldog, Bret hitman Heart, El Matador, Tatanka, Sid Justice or Mr. Perfect!!!!
We did not have Play stations, Nintendo's, X-boxes, no video games at all, no 150 channels on cable, no video movies or DVD's, no surround-sound, CD's or I pods, no cell phones!, no personal computers , no Internet or chat rooms........ WE HAD FRIENDS and we went outside and found them!
We fell out of trees, got cut, broke bones and teeth and there were no lawsuits from these accidents.We ate worms and mud food made from dirt (when playing cha baba na cha mama), and the worms did not live in us forever. We were given Big G for our 10th birthdays, but the most common bought cloths for our birthdays from the first to ????, bought the same on Christmas and other important occasions. In case you did well in school a pat in the back will do and a stun warning not to fail otherwise you will see, for the lucky ones a new school bag or uniforms would do.
We simply walked to a friend's house and knocked on the door or rang the bell, or just walked in and talked to them! The idea of a parent bailing us out if we broke the law (in this case talking of school) was unheard of. They actually sided with the law! Imagine they even had the nerve to take the cane from the teacher (law enforcer) and unleash it on you!!!!!! And dear friends, if you have passed through this then you know you are a risk-taker, problem solver and inventor!! The past 50 years have been an explosion of innovation and new ideas.
By the way, would we have sex? Did we know even how to start let alone think of what girls hid beneath the skirt!!!!
We had freedom, failure, success and responsibility, and we learned HOW TO DEAL WITH IT ALL!
If YOU are one of them . . CONGRATULATIONS!
Hehehehehehe
We survived being born to mothers who took aspirin and didn't get tested for diabetes.
Then after that trauma, we were put to sleep on our tummies on a mattress on the floor not baby cribs covered with bright colored leso. To be put to sleep you were carried on the back tied with a leso and not put on rocking baby cribs or wheeled around on baby cycles till one got dizzy and opted to sleep. We had no childproof lids on medicine bottles, doors or cabinets. When we rode our bikes, we had no helmets, not to mention, the risks we took climbing walls, trees and posts.
As infants and children, we would ride in cars with no car seats, booster seats, seat belts or air bags. The matatus those days were the seven aside type (pick ups) so riding in the back of a pick up on a warm day was always a special treat.
We drank water from anywhere; from the river, lake, rainwater that collected in the ndoo; the garden hose, directly from the tap (whatever tap) - outside the shamba, in the toilet, on the street, in the kitchen sink and NOT from a bottle. We shared one soft drink with four friends, from one bottle; or shared a sweet (puru) with four friends- and NO ONE actually died from this.
We ate cupcakes, goody goody, ice cream, white bread (Elliot's) and blue band, but we weren't overweight because WE WERE ALWAYS OUTSIDE PLAYING! We would leave home in the morning and play all day, as long as we were back when the sun went down.
We would spend hours building our toys, mugaragari, out of scraps and tins of blue band, kimbo, and cowboy tins or out of omo boxes and empty jik bottles. I remember of a friend who desperately wanted a jik bottle to make a toy car that he went and emptied jik from a full bottle into his small brother's napkins that had been kept on a basin for washing. I guess you know what the consequences were.
Remember the ride down the hill, only to find out the bike has no brakes. And mind you this small bike is carrying 4 guys- After running into the bushes and sewage trenches a few times, we learned to solve the problem. We made up games- after watching Black Ninja, or Bud Spencer movie at our friend’s on a Black and white screen-Great Wall. It was only a few who owned a video tape player. At times it would get nasty trying out the antis of Britsh Bulldog, Bret hitman Heart, El Matador, Tatanka, Sid Justice or Mr. Perfect!!!!
We did not have Play stations, Nintendo's, X-boxes, no video games at all, no 150 channels on cable, no video movies or DVD's, no surround-sound, CD's or I pods, no cell phones!, no personal computers , no Internet or chat rooms........ WE HAD FRIENDS and we went outside and found them!
We fell out of trees, got cut, broke bones and teeth and there were no lawsuits from these accidents.We ate worms and mud food made from dirt (when playing cha baba na cha mama), and the worms did not live in us forever. We were given Big G for our 10th birthdays, but the most common bought cloths for our birthdays from the first to ????, bought the same on Christmas and other important occasions. In case you did well in school a pat in the back will do and a stun warning not to fail otherwise you will see, for the lucky ones a new school bag or uniforms would do.
We simply walked to a friend's house and knocked on the door or rang the bell, or just walked in and talked to them! The idea of a parent bailing us out if we broke the law (in this case talking of school) was unheard of. They actually sided with the law! Imagine they even had the nerve to take the cane from the teacher (law enforcer) and unleash it on you!!!!!! And dear friends, if you have passed through this then you know you are a risk-taker, problem solver and inventor!! The past 50 years have been an explosion of innovation and new ideas.
By the way, would we have sex? Did we know even how to start let alone think of what girls hid beneath the skirt!!!!
We had freedom, failure, success and responsibility, and we learned HOW TO DEAL WITH IT ALL!
If YOU are one of them . . CONGRATULATIONS!
Hehehehehehe
